Electronic Business: Concepts, Methodologies, Tools, and Applications (4-Volumes) P145 docx

While some aspects of the Bizewest portal, the subject of this chapter, could be described just as Web pages, as the primary purpose of Bizewest was to provide a gateway to information a

rather investigates the adoption (or perhaps

non-adoption) of this technology by SMEs in

Melbourne’s western region In regard to

tech-nological innovation, we argue that it does not

matter how good the technology is if no one makes

use of it If the intended users do not adopt the

portal, then it will fail The chapter investigates

reasons for non-adoption of the Bizewest portal

and outlines the lessons that might be learned from

this Management decisions to implement new

technology, in this case, a business-to-business

portal, must take account of the likely adoption

and use of this technology, and take necessary

steps to ensure that it is adopted and used to full

advantage; otherwise, time and money will be

wasted

Web Portals

7KH WHUP ³:HE 3RUWDO´ LV UDWKHU RYHUXVHG DQG

TXLWH GLI¿FXOW WR GH¿QH SUHFLVHO\ WDNLQJ RQ D

somewhat different meaning depending on the

viewpoint of the stakeholder (Tatnall, 2005) In

general terms, unrelated to the World Wide Web,

WKH0DFTXDULH'LFWLRQDU\GH¿QHVDSRUWDODV³D

door, gate, or entrance” (Macquarie Library, 1981)

0RUHVSHFL¿FDOO\D:HESRUWDOFDQEHVHHQDVD

special Internet (or intranet) site designed to act

primarily as a gateway to give access to other

sites containing information or services An

im-portant notion behind the concept of a portal is

that it does not provide much content itself, but

rather organises content from other providers

2WKHU PRUH UHVWULFWLYH WHFKQLFDO GH¿QLWLRQV RI

portals are used by some scholars, but we

pre-IHUWKHEURDGHUGH¿QLWLRQWKDWVLPSO\HTXDWHVD

portal to a gateway While some aspects of the

Bizewest portal, the subject of this chapter, could

be described just as Web pages, as the primary

purpose of Bizewest was to provide a gateway to

information and services that might be useful to

the SMEs, we will describe it as a portal.

7KHUH LV QR GH¿QLWLYH FDWHJRULVDWLRQ RI WKH various types of portal, but Davison, Burgess, and Tatnall (2004) offer the following:

• General portals: These portals try to be the

³RQHVWRSVKRSV´IRUDOORUDWOHDVWPDQ\ user needs Many of these have developed from being simple search tools such as Ya-hoo (http://au.yaYa-hoo.com/), Internet service providers such as AOL (www.aol.com.au/),

or e-mail services like Hotmail – NineMSN (http://ninemsn.com.au/) Many general portals include services such as: free e-mail, links to search engines and categories of information, membership services, news and sports, business headlines and articles, personalised space with a user’s selections, links to chat rooms, links to virtual shopping malls, and Web directories

• Regional or community portals are often

set up by community groups in locations such as Canada (webdesign.foundlocally com/OurPortals.htm) or Launceston in Tasmania (www.elaunceston.com/), or are sometimes set up by people with special or common interests, or based around special interest groups such as older people (www greypath.com) (Tatnall & Lepa, 2001)

• Vertical industry portals are usually tightly

IRFXVHGDURXQGVSHFL¿FLQGXVWU\DUHDVDQG

so tend to be more specialised, offering their services in one particular interest or industry area ( Burgess, Bingley, & Tatnall, 2005; Lynch, 1998) Examples of vertical industry portals include the timber industry (http://www.timber.org) and the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturer Exporter Associa-tion (www.bangladeshgarments.info) Many vertical portals have services for business SDUWQHUVRU³PHPEHUV´RQO\

• Horizontal industry portals are based

around a group of businesses in an industry or

a local region A good example of a

horizon-tal porhorizon-tal is the Business to Business(B2B)

portal sponsored by the United Overseas

Bank in Singapore (http://www.uob.com

sg/) This portal allows small businesses

to set up online shopfronts with payments

for purchased goods being processed by the

bank Bizewest (Tatnall & Burgess, 2002),

the example discussed in this chapter, can

be considered to be a horizontal industry

portal

A portal can be described as horizontal when

it is utilised by a broad base of users across a

horizontal market, or vertical when their focus is

primarily attuned to a particular audience such as

DVSHFL¿FLQGXVWU\RUJURXSRILQGXVWULHV%XUJHVV

Bingley, & Tatnall, 2005; Lynch 1998)

• Enterprise information portals serve as

the gateway to a corporate intranet There

is a recent trend for larger businesses to set

XSWKHLURZQ³LQWHUQDO´SRUWDOVIRUHPSOR\HH

use as part of their intranet services (Searle,

2005) An enterprise information portal

offers a single point of entry that brings

together the employees, business partners,

and (possibly) consumers at one virtual place

(Turban, Lee, King, & Chung, 2002)

• E-marketplace portals: These extended

enterprise portals offer access to a

com-pany’s extranet services One example is

Covisint (www.covisint.com) developed by

the automotive companies, General Motors

Corporation, Ford Motor Company, and

Daimler-Chrysler This portal aims to

elimi-nate redundancies and burdens for suppliers

through integration and collaboration, with

the promise of lower costs, easier business

SUDFWLFHVDQGPDUNHGLQFUHDVHVLQHI¿FLHQ-cies for the entire industry (Turban et al.,

2002)

• Personal/Mobile portals: Following

the trends towards mobile (or pervasive) computing, personal/mobile portals are increasingly being embedded into mobile phones, wireless PDAs, and the like Some appliances are also being equipped with personal portals aimed at allowing them to communicate with other appliances, or to

be used more easily from a distance

• Information portals: Although information

SRUWDOVFDQLQPRVWFDVHVDOVREHFODVVL¿HG into one of the other categories, they can also

be viewed as a category in their own right

as portals whose prime aim is to provide DVSHFL¿FW\SHRILQIRUPDWLRQ7KHVSRUWV information portal, ESPN (http://msn.espn go.com/), is one example of an informa-tion portal Another is Portals Community (http://www.portalscommunity.com/), a portal dedicated to providing information about portals

• Specialised/Niche portals are designed to

VDWLVI\VSHFL¿FQLFKHPDUNHWV,QPDQ\FDVHV WKHVHFDQDOVREHFODVVL¿HGDV,QIRUPDWLRQ portals For example, ESPN (http://msn.espn go.com/) is targeted towards 18-34 year-old males, while iVillage (http://www.ivillage co.uk/) is targeted towards women Other specialised portals provide detailed industry information, often available only for a fee

%HQH¿WVRI:HE3RUWDOVIRU60(V

There are many advantages for business and community groups in using portals, and Burgess, Bingley, and Tatnall (2005) describe a revenue model for horizontal portals in which they ex-amine the role of players, strategies, and content

$OWKRXJK SRUWDOV KDYH PDQ\ EHQH¿WV WKH\ DUH especially important for small business, offering EHQH¿WVWKDWPDNHXSIRUVRPHRIWKHSUREOHPV

of being small These include (Tatnall, Burgess,

& Singh, 2004):

• A secure environment: Portals provide a

secure online environment for small business

to set up e- businesses Portals can include a

payment infrastructure that enables SMEs

to integrate their accounts receivable and

payable to the portal backend systems

• Search and directory services: Search

engines that list the portals will

automati-FDOO\HQDEOH:HEXVHUVWR¿QGWKHJDWHZD\

to small online shops on the Web via these

portals, saving substantially on costs

• New partnerships: E-commerce opens up

the opportunity for businesses to sell to new

buyers, tap into the cyber supply chain and

win new business markets, offer

comple-mentary products with other businesses,

and procure goods electronically

• Community building and regional

rela-tionships: Community building features

such as chat rooms, message boards,

instant-messaging services, online greeting cards,

and other Web services are included in the

portal infrastructure

• Strategy, management, and business

trust: Portals enable businesses to uptake a

common structure for e-business that helps

them attain management support, or share

ideas with other businesses and attain

suc-cess

• Improved customer management: Portals

can make deals with Internet retailers that

ZLOODOVREHQH¿WVPDOOEXVLQHVVHVWKDWDUH

part of the portal

The Western Region of Melbourne

Australia is a federation of six states and two

territories The states are segmented into smaller

regions or communities of interest to deliver

base-level services to the people These services

include things like the administration of

build-ing standards, the policbuild-ing of minor by-laws,

the provision of garbage collection services

and ensuring the welfare of the aged Much of the revenue of local government comes from the imposition of rates and charges on property RZQHUVZLWKLQWKHPXQLFLSDOLW\EXWDVLJQL¿FDQW part of the income comes in the form of grants from the other two levels of government Local government is extremely vulnerable in that any administration can be dismissed by a state Local Government Minister Unlike the two upper levels

of government, the parliament or council of local government is composed of politicians who are only part-time and are not paid a salary However, they are paid allowances to compensate them for expenses incurred while performing their duties (Pliaskin, 2004)

The Western Region of Melbourne contains around 20,000 businesses and is regarded as the manufacturing, transport, and distribution hub

of south-eastern Australia (Tatnall, Burgess, & Singh, 2004) Traditionally, this region had en-compassed much of the industry in metropolitan Melbourne

The Western Region Economic Development Organisation Limited, colloquially known as WREDO, is sponsored by the six municipalities (Brimbank, Hobson’s Bay, Maribyrnong, Melton, Moonee Valley, & Wyndham) that make up the Western region of Melbourne Traditionally, these council areas had encompassed much of the industry in metropolitan Melbourne and conse-quently had been regarded as areas populated by

³ZRUNLQJFODVV´SHRSOHEXWZLWKWKHH[SDQVLRQ

of Melbourne and the desire of professionals to live close to the central business district, much

of the demographic of these areas is changing :5('2LVDQRWIRUSUR¿WRUJDQLVDWLRQDQGLVDOVR supported by major business enterprises operat-ing in the western suburbs WREDO is charged with fostering economic growth and encouraging investment within the Western Region of Mel-bourne; it is involved in a variety of regular and RQFHRIILQLWLDWLYHVLQRUGHUWRIXO¿OLWVFKDUWHU One of its regular activities is a monthly

network-ing breakfast which business leaders in the area

attend in order to get to know each other and to

listen to a guest speaker (Pliaskin, 2004)

:5('2LVDOVRVXSSRUWHGE\¿YHPDMRUEXVL-ness enterprises operating in the western suburbs

of Melbourne: Australian Gas and Light Limited,

City West Water, McGregor By Road, Powercor

Australia Limited, and the Urban and Regional

Land Corporation

The chapter describes the creation of the

Bizewest Business-to-Business (B2B) Portal,

DQG :5('2¶V GLI¿FXOW\ LQ SHUVXDGLQJ ORFDO

EXVLQHVVHV WR FKDQJH WKHLU ZD\V VXI¿FLHQWO\ WR

adopt and fully utilise the portal It begins with

WREDO applying for a government grant to set

up the portal, without much prior discussion on

its purpose or value: it just seemed like a good

opportunity Next we discuss the development

problems WREDO experienced in setting up the

SRUWDODQG¿QDOO\:5('2¶VDWWHPSWVWRJHWORFDO

SMEs to make use of the portal

THE CREATION OF THE BIZEWEST

BUSINESS-TO-BUSINESS PORTAL

In February, 2000, the Victorian State Treasurer

announced a new government initiative known as

the Victorian E-Commerce Early Movers Scheme

(VEEM) The scheme was designed to provide

assistance to local government to allow it to

en-courage small to medium enterprises operating

within their boundaries to use e-commerce for

the purpose of expanding business and to make

these trading entities more competitive VEEM

was to provide assistance to local councils in their

role as economic development agencies for their

municipalities

A cornerstone of the scheme was the

ac-NQRZOHGJHPHQWWKDWLQVXI¿FLHQWQXPEHUVRIVXFK

organisations were using new technology to build

business and to enhance competitiveness This was

of concern because international experience with

WKHLQIRUPDWLRQHFRQRP\LQGLFDWHGWKDWVLJQL¿FDQW EHQH¿WV IDOO WR HDUO\ PRYHUV LQWR HFRPPHUFH (Gallaugher & Downing, 2005), and the govern-ment decided to empower businesses by providing RSSRUWXQLWLHVWRUHDSWKHEHQH¿WVRIEHLQJRQOLQH early The government addressed its vision for growing the information and communications WHFKQRORJLHV LQGXVWU\ DQG VKDULQJ WKH EHQH¿WV

of these technologies across the community in WKH³&RQQHFWLQJ9LFWRULD´VWUDWHJ\VWDWHPHQWRI 1RYHPEHURXWOLQLQJDVLJQL¿FDQWDJHQGD LWHP ³%RRVWLQJ (&RPPHUFH´ WKDW VHW RXW WR

³YLJRURXVO\ SURPRWH HFRPPHUFH´ LQ 9LFWRULD (Brumby, 1999)

Assistance under the VEEM scheme could cover up to 75% of all costs associated with proj-ects, and grants were to be made on a case-by-case basis The maximum funding was to be $45,000 for any discrete e-commerce enabling proposal,

or $15,000 per e-commerce workshop project proposal Councils were able to put in joint submis-sions in order to obtain a higher level of funding for a project that crossed municipal boundaries Funding could involve capital, equipment costs,

and labour implementation costs, but was not to

include ongoing maintenance or operating costs

of the project Projects needed to demonstrate WKDW WKH\ ZRXOG SURYLGH VLJQL¿FDQW OHYHUDJH WR indirectly improve local economies, and that they would reach a level of self-sustainability within the period of their business plan, as no funding was

to be provided for maintenance purposes (VEEM, 2000) They also needed to show that they would SURYLGHVLJQL¿FDQWOHYHUDJHWRLQGLUHFWO\LPSURYH local economies and that they would improve one

or more of the following situations:

• The economic performance of a region;

• The business competitiveness of a region;

• The level of available infrastructure; and

• The ability of councils to perform their economic development role

The guidelines gave a non-exhaustive list of

VSHFL¿FH[DPSOHVRISURMHFWVWKDWPLJKWEHHOLJLEOH

for a grant These included supply chain

initia-tives, e-commerce business planning workshops,

e-commerce vendor and business networking

sessions, regional e-commerce expos, regional

business portal implementation, enabling local

EXVLQHVVHV IRU RQOLQH IXO¿OPHQW DQG

SURFXUH-ment, allowing councils and businesses to adopt

electronic commerce for procurement, and setting

XSD:HESUHVHQFHIRUWKHIDFLOLWDWLRQRIVSHFL¿F

education and awareness requirements Each

participating company within a project must have

been operating in Victoria, must show

manage-ment strengths, must have been committed to

exporting or to import replacement, must have

been committed to the introduction of

e-com-merce, and preferably should have trading history

of a year or longer

The notion of interoperability was strongly

stressed, and it was noted that the use of electronic

commerce was reducing costs and improving the

quality of business-to-business transactions An

important requirement of any grant was to

main-tain the greatest possible measure of

interoper-ability across all forms of government, including

local councils It was stressed that system

interop-erability and consistency in an environment that

is seamless for buyers and sellers was essential

It was also to be a condition of the grant that UHFLSLHQWV RSHUDWH ZLWKLQ WKH ³)UDPHZRUN IRU National Co-operation on Electronic Commerce in Government Procurement” in their strategic plan-ning for electronic commerce This framework outlines and explains a number of issues includ-ing security, authentication, tender management systems, supplier registration, catalogues, and LGHQWL¿FDWLRQV\VWHPV9((0

WREDO thought that this grant was worth pursuing, and after some internal discussions, LWGHFLGHGWRDSSO\IRUIXQGLQJIRUWKH³:HVWHUQ Melbourne Business-to-Business Portal” The proposal aimed at constructing a business-to-business e-business-to-business Web portal so as to provide

a tangible regional approach to enable organisa-tions in the Western Region of Melbourne to participate in the information economy (Pliaskin, 2004) Because of the short time-frame allowed for the lodgement of proposals, there was little time for discussion with local SMEs or others outside WREDO, and so the WREDO submis-sion was drawn up in haste in the expectation that it would probably not be accepted (Lindley, personal communication, 2003)

Figure 1 WREDO and Bizewest portals—main entry points

In its submission, WREDO argued that this

B2B portal was to provide a regional approach

to enabling businesses in Melbourne’s western

region to actively participate in the information

economy It was to be a true B2B portal with

trad-ing facilities and a payment gateway linked with

a major bank This was to be exclusively regional,

and only businesses in Melbourne’s Western

Re-gion would be permitted to set up trading on the

SRUWDO6SHFL¿FDOO\WKHSURMHFWZDVWR

• Create a Web portal for business and local

government in Melbourne’s Western Region

to provide a mechanism for businesses to

engage in business-to-business e-commerce

and to encourage

business-to-local-govern-ment transactions in the local area

• Initially target 50 businesses from each of

the six western region municipalities making

up a total of 300 businesses to participate in the pilot project These businesses were to come primarily from the key and emerging industries in the region in the transport and distribution, manufacturing, and services sectors

• Develop a regional Web-based registry for the businesses involved This was to include

a Website for each business and the provision

of a range of e-commerce enabling tools that would facilitate business-to-business transactions taking place

• Increase awareness and participation with emerging technologies The project aimed at encouraging SMEs in Melbourne’s western region to be more aggressive in their uptake

of e-commerce opportunities It also aimed

at working with these SMEs and operating

Figure 2 The Bizewest portal

in growth industry sectors in the region to

¿QGDQGH[SORLWHFRPPHUFHVROXWLRQV

• Create an ongoing program of regional

semi-nars and training, both informal and formal,

for the pilot businesses involved and for new

entrants Training was to focus on effective

trading and exporting opportunities in the

online environment and was to be provided

through existing programs available in the

western region

• Focus on involving the youth of the area in the

promotion of new technologies for business

The project team was to work with

second-ary schools in the region to involve senior

high school students studying Information

Technology or Engineering and Design, in

the development of e-business solutions for

businesses in the region

WREDO conducted a SWOT (Strengths,

Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) analysis

of the project and included the results of this study

in its submission

• The perceived strengths included the

re-gional approach that provided a broad base

for recruiting participating enterprises

It was highlighted that the focus on key

growth industries ensured that employment

outcomes for local people were more likely

With its focus on actual B2B application of

e-business technologies, the project aimed

to ensure that participating organisations

would actually engage in e-commerce rather

than just become aware of it The Western

Melbourne B2B portal aimed to complement

the individual projects proposed by councils

in the area

• The perceived weaknesses included the

notion that the key growth industry areas

in the region, transport and manufacturing,

are not naturally business-to-consumer

operations Therefore it was thought that

e-business applications would need to be

tailored to individual businesses Generic software products might not be a feasible op-WLRQ,WZDVDOVRIHOWWKDWLWPLJKWEHGLI¿FXOW

to convince some operators of small- and medium-sized enterprises to participate

• The perceived opportunities included the opportunity for local enterprises to take advantage of e-business solutions in a sup-ported atmosphere This was an opportunity WRKDYHD³WHDP´RIQHZEXVLQHVVHVWU\QHZ WHFKQRORJLHVDQGDFWDV³LQSURJUHVV´FDVH studies The regional focus could act as a catalyst for greater business participation in the project in the short-to-medium term

• The perceived threats included the thought that the project might be too broad to manage

in a short period of time The notion that rapid changes and advancements in technology may impact on the relevance of e-business solutions proposed for business There was also an idea that the costs of implementation and ongoing maintenance of the project for individual businesses might prove prohibi-tive

In June, 2000, it was announced that WREDO’s submission for a B2B portal had been successful, and that government funding of $247,400 for the project was to be provided for a period of twelve months on condition that WREDO provide an additional amount equivalent to one third of this amount from its own funds WREDO then al-located the further $88,000 towards the project, making a total project budget of $335,400 for the year (Pliaskin, 2004)

BUILDING AND DEVELOPING THE PORTAL

After receiving a grant for what it thought to be

a large amount of money, WREDO originally intended to develop the portal, possibly with the assistance of a software company, and provide

training to locals SMEs itself (WREDO staff,

2001), but it did not really anticipate the size or

complexity of the task that it was undertaking The

Bizewest project was divided up into four distinct

SKDVHVHDFKZLWKLGHQWL¿DEOHPLOHVWRQHV

1 In the initial phase, it was planned that

the project should be scoped, staffed, and

equipped Within the scoping segment, a

steering committee would be convened by

WREDO The deliverables in this phase

included the establishment of full project

outlines and timelines, the commencement

of employment of project staff, the purchase

and setup of the equipment, and the

deter-mination of the Internet Service Provider

for the portal

2 In Phase Two, it was planned that the

par-ticipants for the initial stages of the portal

would be recruited A team of students to

work on the project was to be recruited by

WREDO and, at the same time, WREDO and

the Steering Committee were charged with

UHFUXLWLQJWKH¿UVWURXQGRIEXVLQHVVHVWR

be part of the project The deliverable here

ZDVWKHUHFUXLWPHQWDQGWUDLQLQJRIWKH¿UVW

VWXGHQWVDQGWKH¿UVWEXVLQHVVHV

3 In Phase Three, it was planned that the

Bizewest portal would be established and

become operational During this time, it was

planned that educative sessions for

partici-pating businesses should be run by WREDO

in conjunction with Victoria University In

addition, site pages were to be created and

solutions proposed to participating

busi-nesses by WREDO, the appointed service

providers and the local secondary students

recruited for this purpose At the same time,

WREDO and the Steering Committee were

to launch the project, to market the project,

and consequently, to run a major

network-ing breakfast that was to centre on Bizewest

and to plan for the long-term sustainability

of the project The deliverables in this phase

were the preparation of case studies on the initial 60 participants, the recruitment and introduction of another 240 businesses from the six council areas, bringing the total to

300, and the promotion of the project within the region and within the state of Victoria

4 The last phase involved the preparation of

¿QDOFDVHVWXGLHVDQGWKHSODQQLQJIRUFRQ-tinuing sustainability for the site The project commenced and was due to be completed on May 31, 2001 To some degree, each phase overlapped its neighbour, and the Steer-ing Committee was to be responsible for overseeing the project and recommending the progression from one phase to the next With each phase, the Steering Committee and Project Team were to monitor progress against agreed deliverables and milestones The deliverables for Phase Four were the establishment and full operation of the whole portal, complete with a sustainability business plan in place

:5('2LVVXHGVSHFL¿FDWLRQVWRERWK7HOVWUD Australia and Cable and Wireless Optus for host-ing the portal, pointhost-ing out that they were lookhost-ing

at enabling creation of small business sites of around 10Mb They requested a price for hosting these sites, but the telecommunications compa-nies did not appear to understand small business requirements; what WREDO received in response KDGQRWKLQJWRGRZLWKWKHVSHFL¿FDWLRQVDQGOLWWOH

to do with businesses of this size (Pliaskin, 2004)

It was clear that more work would also have to

be done to identify a software company to assist with building the portal

Negotiations continued, and an arrangement ZDV¿QDOO\PDGHZLWK2SWXVWRKRVWWKHSRUWDO DQG WR ¿QG D VRIWZDUH FRPSDQ\ WR EXLOG LW $W the WREDO networking breakfast in November,

2000, it was formally announced that the Bize-west Steering Committee would work with Cable and Wireless Optus and Infosentials Limited on the development of the portal Unfortunately,

Figure 3 The Bizewest portal—services

Figure 4 The Bizewest portal—payment gateway

in December, 2000, Infosentials was placed in

voluntary administration, forcing WREDO to

terminate that company’s involvement Cable

and Wireless Optus then sought an alternative

provider of services for building the portal, and

¿QDO DJUHHPHQW ZDV UHDFKHG LQ -DQXDU\ 

with Optus for the supply of services to build and

host the Bizewest portal Building of the portal

was subcontracted by Optus to a company called

Batteries Included, who used a product called

ReadyHub to construct the portal infrastructure

(Pliaskin, 2004) The development of the portal

infrastructure and services commenced in late

January, 2001, with initial testing beginning in

late April of the same year

WREDO soon discovered that what it was

doing was anything but straightforward, and that

little precedent existed, at the time, for a regional

horizontal B2B portal of this type They also

dis-covered that the money they had available did not

go as far as they had thought it might Some of

WKHGLI¿FXOWLHVZKLFKWKH\H[SHULHQFHGLQEXLOG-ing the portal have subsequently been discussed

by other researchers (Gengatharen & Standing,

2003; Lepa & Tatnall, 2002; Pliaskin & Tatnall,

)XUWKHUWRDGGWRWKHVHGLI¿FXOWLHVVRPH

internal issues associated with Batteries Included

meant that this company eventually split into

several bits The part of the company that was

building the portal became known as Kitchen

Sink Software, and assumed responsibility for

the operation and maintenance of the Bizewest

portal Bizewest (www.bizewest.com.au) became

operational in May, 2001, but without a payment

gateway This gateway did not become available

until February, 2003, after 21 months of further

development

Once the portal was operational, getting

lo-cal business online was the next step, and this

involved two parts: convincing regional SMEs to

adopt the portal, and providing them with suitable

Websites to link to the portal Previously, a single

HQWHUSULVHKDGEHHQLGHQWL¿HGZLWKLQHDFKORFDO

FRXQFLODUHDDQGGHVLJQDWHGWKH³EXVLQHVVFKDP-pion” for that locality These business champions played a pivotal role in ensuring that enterprises within their municipal areas were made aware of the Bizewest portal

Through a series of initiatives, Bizewest was promoted to industry in the region WREDO News featured several articles on the site, and the main WREDO website (www.MelbWest.com.au) dedicated space to Bizewest The media wrote positively on the project after having viewed dem-onstrations of it, and letters were written to likely prospects The issue was raised at the monthly WREDO networking breakfasts, and written material was supplied to participants WREDO also enlisted the help of industry groups and other umbrella bodies in the area Business breakfasts, workshops, lots of publicity, and no initial costs to the businesses that adopted the portal were part

of the considerable effort made by WREDO to convince SMEs that getting onto the portal would

be a good idea To assist businesses to create Web pages to link to the Bizewest portal, WREDO held WZR ³:HE$7KRQV´ DW ORFDO VKRSSLQJ FHQWUHV

At these sessions, year 11 students from local secondary schools assisted local organisations to create their Web pages WREDO also arranged for some of these students to consult with local EXVLQHVVHVRQDRQHWRRQHEDVLVRQWKHLU³ZRUN experience” days to set up their Websites This had the advantage to these businesses of producing a very cheaply-created Website; the cost of using a

³ZRUNH[SHULHQFH´VWXGHQWLVRQO\SHUGD\7KH simple site was, however, one that would serve their initial needs very well This arrangement continued for some time

Even though a payment facility for business-to-business e-commerce was not part of the original implementation, the notion was investigated and

an understanding was reached that this should become a part of the project The payment gateway ZDVWREHFRPHWKH¿QDOFURZQLQJDFKLHYHPHQW

of the Bizewest initiative Ultimately, the ANZ Bank was selected to become the provider of this service (McLure, personal communication,

win new business markets, offer

comple-mentary products with other businesses,

and procure goods electronically

• Community building and regional...

of Melbourne: Australian Gas and Light Limited,

City West Water, McGregor By Road, Powercor

Australia Limited, and the Urban and Regional

Land Corporation

The chapter